Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what were the circumstances that led to 15,636 applications for indefinite leave to remain under the British National (Overseas) route being received in Q1 2026; and whether new resources were recruited in anticipation of that volume or whether the additional staffing resources deployed were drawn from caseworkers assigned to applications under the Turkish European Communities Association Agreement.

The Home Office service standard completion rates are individual to each casework route. There is no correlation between completion rates for British National (Overseas) Leave to Remain applications and ECAA Leave to Remain applications.

Each application is considered on its individual facts, with each immigration route having its own specific eligibility criteria that must be considered prior to a final decision being served.

The Home Office allocates resources for case working of immigration applications in line with the forecasted demand.

The increase in applications for indefinite leave to remain under the British National (Overseas) route reflects the timing of eligibility following the route’s introduction on 31 January 2021. Those on the route generally qualify for indefinite leave after five years’ residence. Casework resource was allocated to this route in line with the forecasted increase in applications throughout 2026.

There has been a higher than forecast intake on the European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) route over the last 12 months, and a high proportion of complex cases with large amounts of evidence which must be reviewed as part of the decision-making process. This has impacted processing times and volumes of decisions. Additional decision-making resource has now been assigned to the ECAA route.